As technology evolves, sensitive media in the form of digital data is stored on disks that can be copied, exposing the media to misuse. Electronically stored media can contain extremely confidential information. For this reason, it is critical that sensitive information stored on a disk is disposed of in a manner where the information is absolutely unrecoverable. Various mechanisms exist wherein the digital data stored on a disk or like media is electronically or physically destroyed. The goal being to assure that any sensitive material on the disk has been rendered unusable, and proof of the destroyed disk exists.
Data destroying devices are described in Applicant's prior patents, including U.S. Pat. No. 7,324,321 for a Degaussing Apparatus; U.S. Pat. No. 7,852,590 for a Solid State Memory Decommissioner; and U.S. Pat. No. 8,064,183 for a Capacitor Based Bi-Directional Degaussing Apparatus.
Applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 8,794,559 discloses an apparatus for destroying memory devices, like hard drives, by compression and electrical current to destroy the memory media inside the memory device. The apparatus includes a pair of opposed compression plates; at least one plate is grounded, while the other plate, charged with 5 to 100 volts of electricity, is movable toward the other by a linear motion force.
Applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 9,776,192 discloses a device for comminuting media materials. The device is a rotating mill core with removable flat edged blades, a set of stacked bed knives and a screen. The mill core rotates in close proximity to adjustable bed knives to shear the material being fed before passing through a screen in order to grate the material.
Applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 10,071,382 discloses a device to reduce solid state drives into particles less than 2 mm maximum edge length. A blade assembly is designed to provide multiple cutting angles while rotating at 520 rpm to maintain a low decibel rating.
Applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 10,242,699 discloses a single magnetic pulse degaussing apparatus for use in erasing information contained on magnetic recording or storage media. A degaussing chamber for receipt of magnetic forces above 2.0 Tesla is accessible by upper and lower rotary actuated doors. The internal flux of a coil is measured by the current passing through the coil during the discharge cycle to provide flux versus time measurements. The measurements are inserted into a performance verification algorithm to assure sufficient time for media destruction has taken place before releasing the media from the degaussing chamber.
In some instances, media can be placed on a planar flat material that can literally be ground to dust. A common need for all devices that render media unusable, whether or not the disks are physically destroyed, is to provide an apparatus that provides a tamperproof method of documenting the sanitization of an SSD disk.